Tips for Keyword Searching

Quotation marks can be used to search for phrases (e.g. "infant development")

Truncation searches for variants of a word. Use an asterik (*) at the root (e.g. play* searches for play, plays, playing, player, etc.)

AND combines the search components to find results with both components in the record

Keyword searching is beneficial particularly when there is a new area of research that has not been assigned a subject heading yet. For example, research on "microaggressions" is fairly new, and the APA has not yet established the term as a formal subject in the database.

Find it @ PSU

Our article databases are enabled with a Find It @ PSU green button which connects you from the database you are searching to the holdings of specific articles in our Library.

If the article citation in your search results does not include a link to the full text PDF file, use the green Find It @ PSU button to check online or print availability via the Library catalog.

About PsycINFO

Using Limits

Use limits to filter results for specific aspects of the resource such as particular age groups, research methodology, or publication type. These selections help you quickly narrow down results to items most relevant for you (and your assignment!).

Advanced Search with Subject Headings Tutorial

Explode and Major Heading

Explode

"Explode" means that you are searching for a particular subject heading and all the narrower subject headings underneath it. For example, if you search:

Social Interaction [Explode]

You are also searching its narrower terms:

Encouragement

Interpersonal Interaction

Nonviolence

Peace

Physical Contact

Teasing

Victimization

Major Heading

Most citations in PsycINFO are assigned 5-7 subject headings. 2 or 3 of those subject headings are likely to be designated as the primary focus of the article. Selecting "Major" means you will only retrieve those articles that have that subject heading designated as major. While this option can be useful occasionally, often it will limit your search too much and you will have very few articles to select.